PROFIT MAXIMIZATION FOR CLOUD BROKER IN CLOUD COMPUTING

With the rise of cloud computing, an increasing number of applications are being deployed in cloud environments.A key characteristic of cloud computing is its pay-as-you-go model. Despite this flexibility, many users end uppaying more than what they actually use due to the standard one-hour billing interval. Additionally, cloud serviceproviders often offer discounts for long-term commitments, which are inaccessible to short-term users withminimal computing needs. To address these issues and help users reduce expenses, a new entity known as a cloudbroker is introduced. This broker acts as a mediator between cloud service providers and end users. It purchasesreserved virtual machines (VMs) from providers at a discounted rate and resells them to users on-demand at lowerprices than what providers usually charge. Cloud brokers also implement shorter billing cycles, further helpingusers to minimize costs. Besides benefiting users, cloud brokers can also generate profits by capitalizing on theprice difference between reserved and on-demand VMs. This paper explores strategies to effectively configure acloud broker and determine optimal VM pricing to maximize profits while simultaneously reducing costs forusers. Several factors influence the broker’s profitability, including user demand patterns, acquisition and sellingprices of VMs, and the broker’s operational scale. These variables are interdependent, adding complexity to theprofit analysis. We begin by examining these factors comprehensively and then formulate a profit maximizationproblem, which involves determining the best multi-server setup and VM pricing scheme. To solve this problem,we introduce a heuristic approach that combines partial derivatives with bisection search techniques. The resultingnear-optimal solutions can assist brokers in making informed decisions about resource configuration and pricing.Experimental results and comparisons demonstrate that cloud brokers can substantially reduce costs for userswhile maintaining profitability